Dosha Taste and Texture Properties

| Discovering Myself in My Dosha |

Interestingly, the Ayurveda energies are affected by many different elements and properties- from sights, smells and sounds, to tastes and feelings. Each dosha responds in its own unique way to different senses.

Knowing what properties persist in your dosha will become important in knowing what foods, skin products and different environments should be avoided in order to refrain from perpetuating your current imbalance. It will also become extremely important in learning the different sights, smells, sounds tastes and feelings that are opposite of your dosha, because these are the properties that you will want to gravitate towards in order to balance your inner energy. In Ayurveda, the phrase “like increases like” is used quite frequently as a balancing principle for anything you may encounter in your day-to-day life. For instance, an “inflamed” pitta (experiencing rosacea, anger spurts and hot flashes), will want to avoid all the properties of things that resemble pitta (spicy foods, heated arguments, exercising in the sun). Because I seem to have an extreme kapha imbalance and slight pitta imbalance, here are the tastes and textures I need to be aware of:

Because kapha (oily skin) is made of:

-Sweet, salty and sour tastes

-Heavy, cold, oily, slow, dense and static textures and feelings

Kapha (oily skin) needs:

-Pungent, bitter, astringent tastes

-Hot, light, dry textures and feelings

Because pitta (sensitive skin) is made of:

-Acidic, spicy and pungent tastes

-Hot, light, sharp, acidic, fluid and slightly oily textures and feelings

Pitta (sensitive skin) needs:

-Bitter, sweet, astringent tastes

-Cold and heavy textures and feelings

And for you dry-skinned people:

Because vata (dry skin) is made of:

-Crisp and astringent tastes

-Dry, cold, light, rough, dispersing, quick and astringent textures and feelings

Vata (dry skin) needs:

-Oily and salty tastes

-Hot, heavy, lubricating, dense and stable textures and feelings

Whichever dosha I am experiencing the most imbalances with, I will need to focus on increasing those tastes, textures and feelings that are opposite of the dosha’s makeup and which will restore balance. Because kapha and pitta need opposite properties sometimes, I will just need to focus on balancing one of the doshas, in this case, kapha, since it is more prevalent in my body.